perspectives - december 2018

Being a Mom-thlete, you can’t slow down and you certainly can’t be sidelined. Your family depends on your ability to run to each obstacle and tackle it. Then you have to switch gears and roll with the punches - all while protecting your house.

Kinta Wendt is a 42-year old professional Mom-thlete and business woman. Born in New York, raised in California, with a Texas soul, she lives with her loving husband Steve and extremely active daughter Kaitlyn in Kyle, Texas. She is officially the M.O.M. of her small community bank where she is the Mortgage Operations Manager.

Kinta’s therapy is the gym, where she has developed a tribe of other Mom-thletes who share a passion for lifting. She never knew that an ACL tear would help her discover herself and further her business as The Fit Mortgage Chick.

Her track record didn’t start recently, but it’s the most recent ACL injury that made her come back stronger. Seven years ago, Kinta tore her left ACL in her backyard when their labrador retriever, Pekoe, tackled the back of her knee in a full sprint. She had the typical POP and instant fire in her knee that prompted her to go to the emergency room. This led to surgery using a cadaver ACL to repair her knee. She did the typical physical therapy but wasn’t active in her lifestyle like the present.

Fast forward to May 2018, Kinta woke up and realized that her knee didn’t feel 100 percent. Seven years from the exact date, the doctor confirmed she blew through her ACL again. Same knee, same month, seven years later... similar to baseball's 7th inning stretch.

She wasn’t upset, but she didn’t cry. She knew EXACTLY what the game plan would be! She had seen the game film and lived through it once. She knew the process, and being sidelined wasn’t an option. With a family and business to run, she had to sprint into surgery and physical therapy. This time was going to be different. Her amazing Orthopaedic Surgeon used her quad tendon to reconstruct her ACL. Kinta had built up extremely strong quads through lifting and this was a perfect option for a Mom-thlete.

Her only question was….How fast till I can get back into the gym? Any good Momma knows how we love our “therapy” time, whatever your vice is.

The doctor said “as soon as you can walk without pain you can enter the gym and do upper body workouts”. Surgery was on May 25, 2018. Kinta walked into the gym on June 6th, less than 2 weeks later, and returned to her workouts. Knee brace and all, she knew that her mental game needed to stay stronger than ever.

Her physical therapist, Dr. J, was warned by her orthopaedic surgeon. Yes that’s right. Her doctor walked into the PT office and discussed her ability to recover. Her doctor said: "You will have to rein this one in, don’t let too much slack on the leash...she will take a mile". If you knew her, this is true, she was motivated to get back to being 100 percent but knew the risk far outweighed her reward for returning to lift too early.

So the conservative approach it was! Patience and positivity was the mascot for her team. If there is one thing she learned from reading Urban Meyer’s book, "Above The Line, it was that we can’t always control the events in our lives and we can’t always control the outcome… the only thing we can control is our reaction to the event.

This Mom-thlete knew that her reaction to this injury was going to determine her outcome 110 percent. She had a choice: to be negative and let this process take her down; or to rise above the line, stay positive, and move forward with a smile. It’s not always easy to take the high road, it didn’t come without its fair share of trials, but she remained steady in her mental game. This mental attitude affected not only HER outcome... but that of everyone around her.

She took to social media to help her recovery and will one day look back on this; showing her daughter that anything is possible with the right mental game in place. Kinta never received a collegiate scholarship in sports, but being a mom and a wife taught her that above all else, you must stay positive and know that the comeback is so much sweeter than the setback.

Kinta is currently 6 months post-op and has no restrictions on lifting or squatting. While she regains her strength, she is fully aware that her story is impacting hundreds of people within her community and social media community. Repeating the motto: “progress not perfection”, she knew that each day brought a new set of challenges. Every morning she was grateful to take that one extra step without pain. Bending the knee would eventually get easier, and soon, this will pass. Patience and positivity, these words echoed in her mind.

Recovery isn't a solo event, it took a village for Kinta and she would like to thank those special people: Her husband Steve for his patience and love, Kaitlyn for helping mom every day, Dr. D for being the best Surgeon EVER, Dr. J and his team for being amazing in physiotherapy and making me laugh and smile through the pain. She also thanks her framily: Alexander, Dahse, Hagan, Hibbs, Hillman, Johnson, Keswick, McLaughlin, Mendoza, Morehead and Taylor. Lastly, she is thankful for her local community, which always cheering her on, as well as the YMCA for being the best rehab facility in town.

Thank you Kinta for sharing your story and experience with athletes across the globe recovering from injury!